Despite Bleak Situation, Local Musicians Rock On

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, January 24, 2001

The band Flipsides pracitces in a shipping container in San Rafael. Many bands have been priced out of rehearsal space in San Francisco. Chronicle photo by John Storey

The band Flipsides pracitces in a shipping container in San Rafael. Many bands have been priced out of rehearsal space in San Francisco. Chronicle photo by John Storey

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The band Flipsides pracitces in a shipping container in San Rafael. Chronicle photo by John Storey

The band Flipsides pracitces in a shipping container in San Rafael. Chronicle photo by John Storey

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Flipside band members are Sabrina Stewart (left), Mark Bradin and Ricki Ross. Chronicle photo by John Storey

Flipside band members are Sabrina Stewart (left), Mark Bradin and Ricki Ross. Chronicle photo by John Storey

Despite Bleak Situation, Local Musicians Rock On

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Even in the shadow of San Quentin, in the least hospitable surroundings, the music refuses to die.

"This is just like making an MTV video -- but we're in a grange box!" laughs Sabrina Stewart, lead singer and guitarist for the Flipsides. She is being photographed as she rehearses inside the rectangular metal box that has been the band's practice studio for four long months -- since they were evicted, along with 500 other aspiring bands, from Downtown Rehearsal last fall.

"No, it's technically called a container," says drummer Ricki Ross. It is so cold inside the metal walls that between songs, he pulls his hands inside his sweatshirt so that drumming will be less painful. But the Flipsides consider themselves lucky: They found this space, so they've been able to keep practicing. Other bands have not been so lucky.

Many have disbanded, citing venue closures and lack of practice space as insurmountable odds. Others have given up for economic reasons: Hundreds of musicians working for dot-coms have lost their jobs in recent months in layoffs. And innumerable bands are still without a place to rehearse -- including some of the city's most promising.

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Creeper Lagoon, Spin magazine's "new artist of the year" in 1998 and potentially the city's next band to break big, is without any kind of practice space -- and a national tour is looming. Says guitarist Sharky Laguana, "It's really bleak. There's absolutely no space to be had. We have this big record that we spent a huge amount of money on due out in April, and we're willing to pay for a space, but we can't find one!"

And John Vanderslice, another of the city's up-and-coming songwriters who was evicted, has yet to find space either.

"We've set up in our drummer's garage! Just like we're in high school," he says with a laugh. "And we play a lot more acoustically now. It's like there's an ordinance now against making noise in San Francisco."

Certainly, it seems as though the deck is stacked against the local music scene. Last year's escalating real estate prices caused Greg Koch, owner of Downtown Rehearsal -- an enormous warehouse off Third Street in Bayview -- to sell the building last summer, forcing the evictions of about 500 bands. Those same high rents have made it nearly impossible for most of the bands to find other affordable rehearsal space; the few facilities left in the Bay Area have long waiting lists.

And now, local musicians have been hit with another economic punch-in-the- eye. Many are employed by music Internet sites -- and many have, in the recent dot-com bloodbaths, lost their jobs. Among the sites that employed musicians and have suffered major layoffs: Listen.com, Riffage.com, EMusic.com, IUMA.com,

Sonicnet.com. The list goes on.

Laguana lost his job at Listen.com ("We're really scraping now," he says), as did Howard Myint of the auspicious Blue Sky Roadster. But no band has felt the pinch more than Petrol, the city's answer to the Rolling Stones.

"We were in L.A. doing showcases for record companies and got the calls," says manager Braden Merrick. "I was laid off from Redbutton.com, Carter (the drummer) lost his job at IUMA (Internet Underground Music Archive) and Graham (Shaw, lead vocals) lost his at Snowball.com. Between this and getting booted from Downtown Rehearsal, we've had a double whammy."

Merrick says Petrol just recently got a space at Secret Studios, on Cesar Chavez. "But for three months they were rehearsing in what they called the 'hippie house' (a house in the Sunset rented out as rehearsal space), which was miserable. Tons of cats lived there and all the guys were allergic."

When Downtown Rehearsal closed, owner Koch negotiated with the tenants to leave quietly, in exchange for $500,000, to be used toward acquiring a new rehearsal space. The check is still with the escrow company, awaiting a proper place to send it.

"It's taken us longer than we thought to set up the foundation -- none of us knew about filing papers to start a nonprofit, so we've had to learn," says musician Mark Gregory, who became the ad hoc spokesman for the evicted musicians during the heady days of negotiations and protests. "It will be called the Sound Safe Foundation, and we're setting up a board of directors."

The search for new space goes on. The good news is, warehouse space might be decreasing in demand and value, thanks -- ironically -- to the same stumbling of the dot-com economy.

Vanderslice is hopeful. "I just checked and prices are starting to come down. Maybe in a year things will have normalized."

And there are a few other silver linings. Rock musicians have learned some new tricks.

"A lot of bands are practicing acoustic now," notes Laguana, "which may be some kind of blessing in disguise."

Adds Vanderslice, "I think it's actually changed us for the better. It was upsetting to be evicted, but then I thought, if we need to be encased in concrete to make our music, maybe we're depending too much on loudness!"

But perhaps the most valuable -- and surprising -- lesson learned by the local music community is that it can organize and create positive results. In addition to Save Local Music and the Sound Safe Foundation, recent months have seen the birth of the Popular Noise Foundation. Born from the success of the city's Noise Pop Festivals, Popular Noise has emerged as an energizing force for local music.

Benefits held in recent months -- and a $6,000 donation from Live 105 -- have kick-started the fund, and board members are now trying to decide how to allocate money in the future.

"The purpose of Popular Noise is to invest in programs that would benefit and preserve the community," from cash grants to education programs, says Kevin Arnold, one of Popular Noise's founders. "Right now we're doing a survey to determine where money is needed."

Some musicians who have been buffeted by the upheavals in the music industry and the city's economic climate still feel optimistic. Says Vanderslice, "This city is pretty resilient. There will always be culture and art made here."

And until a new building opens up, musicians will keep making music anywhere they can. "This is not a hobby, this is our passion," says Stewart, her eyes wide. "We want to record and tour and play, and we'll do what it takes to make that happen."

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